234 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [April 
experience. Ponting has had to fend for himself under 
primitive conditions in a new land ; the result is a 1 handy 
man 5 with every form of tool and in any circumstances. 
Thus, when building operations were to the fore and 
mechanical labour scarce, Ponting returned to the shell of 
his apartment with only the raw material for completing 
it. In the shortest possible space of time shelves and 
tanks were erected, doors hung and windows framed, and 
all in a workmanlike manner commanding the admiration 
of all beholders. Is was well that speed could be 
commanded for such work, since the fleeting hours of the 
summer season had been altogether too few to be spared 
from the immediate service of photography. Ponting's 
nervous temperament allowed no waste of time — for him 
fine weather meant no sleep ; he decided that lost 
opportunities should be as rare as circumstances would 
permit. 
This attitude was now manifested in the many yards 
of cinematograph film remaining on hand and yet greater 
number recorded as having been sent back in the ship, 
in the boxes of negatives lying on the shelves and a well- 
filled album of prints. 
Of the many admirable points in this work perhaps 
the most notable are Ponting's eye for a picture and the 
mastery he has acquired of ice subjects ; the composition 
of most of his pictures is extraordinarily good, he seems 
to know by instinct the exact value of foreground and 
middle distance and of the introduction of 1 life,' whilst 
with more technical skill in the manipulation of screens 
and exposures he emphasises the subtle shadows of the 
